diff --git a/plugins/Alias/config.py b/plugins/Alias/config.py
index c049f5139..940d5803f 100644
--- a/plugins/Alias/config.py
+++ b/plugins/Alias/config.py
@@ -44,6 +44,6 @@ Alias = conf.registerPlugin('Alias')
 conf.registerGroup(Alias, 'aliases')
 conf.registerGroup(Alias, 'escapedaliases')
 conf.registerGlobalValue(Alias, 'validName',
-    registry.String(r'^[a-z.|!?][a-z0-9.|!]*$', _("""Regex which alias names must match in order to be valid""")))
+    registry.String(r'^[^\x00-\x20]+$', _("""Regex which alias names must match in order to be valid""")))
 
 # vim:set shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4 expandtab textwidth=79:
diff --git a/plugins/Alias/test.py b/plugins/Alias/test.py
index 913b1ab56..f481e4493 100644
--- a/plugins/Alias/test.py
+++ b/plugins/Alias/test.py
@@ -127,6 +127,13 @@ class AliasTestCase(ChannelPluginTestCase):
         self.assertNotError('alias add myre "echo s/$1/$2/g"')
         self.assertResponse('myre foo bar', 's/foo/bar/g')
 
+    def testUnicode(self):
+        self.assertNotError(u'alias add \u200b echo foo')
+        self.assertResponse(u'\u200b', 'foo')
+
+        self.assertNotError(u'alias add café echo bar')
+        self.assertResponse(u'café', 'bar')
+
     def testSimpleAliasWithoutArgsImpliesDollarStar(self):
         self.assertNotError('alias add exo echo')
         self.assertResponse('exo foo bar baz', 'foo bar baz')